Baltimore Det. Jimmy McNulty finds himself in hot water with his superior Major William Rawls after a drug dealer, D'Angelo Barksdale who is charged with three murders, is acquitted. McNulty knows the judge in question and although it's not his case, he's called into chambers to explain what happened. Obviously key witnesses recanted their police statements on the stand but McNulty doesn't underplay Barksdale's role in at least 7 other murders. When the judge's raises his concerns at the senior levels of the police department, they have a new investigation on their hands. Lt. Cedric Daniels is put in charge with Kima Greggs as the lead detective. As for Barksdale, he finds himself demoted to a low-level dealer after his arrest and he obviously has to prove himself yet again.

I thought the pilot was really solid. It introduced a lot of characters, but I think the episode ended with me understanding everyone's role and place. A thing that confused me at first was McNulty and Stringer Bell's (Idris Elba) relationship. McNulty showed up to court for a case he didn't work and Stringer was there dressed to the nines. Stringer showed McNulty a playful drawing and McNulty seemed to laugh it off. At first I thought Stringer was a state defender that McNulty had a history with; I never would have guessed that Stringer was the Barksdale organization underboss.

Speaking of Stringer being the underboss, I want to make sure I have the the hierarchy correct since I just said I think I got it.Avon Barksdale (the guy from Remember the Titans) is the head honcho of Barksdale Organization. He's the one that the police don't have a picture of DOB of.D'Angelo Barksdale (Bob from TWD and from Waterboy) is the nephew of Avon and was the one who got out of the murder chargeStringer Bell is the right hand man to Avon

I thought it was interesting how terrorism played a role in this show since it followed 9/11 by a year. The FBI has great technology that would be very helpful to the case, but they are changing from drugs to terrorism. "How did you get this recording? The audio quality is amazing". "This is a live feed?!?!"

Who googled "518"? Someone was 518'd at the pits an that is why D'Angelo took over for him. 518 is police code for arrested.

Did everyone notice a young Michael B Jordan? I feel like we need a dedicated thread for actors/actresses we recognize from other work.

I liked this show, but I have to say that I wasn't immediately drawn in. The cast is crazy, and there are a lot of TWD actors here. I don't remember anybody's name, but I like the guy who beat the murder charge and went on to reorganize the drug deals to be smarter and more efficient. He's always a secondary actor in movies, so its nice to see him get a main gig in a movie.

Had no idea what this show was about at all before I started, and honestly, I hate cop shows. But there has been so much involved in this, that I'm willing to give it a shot.

Speaking of Stringer being the underboss, I want to make sure I have the the hierarchy correct since I just said I think I got it.Avon Barksdale (the guy from Remember the Titans) is the head honcho of Barksdale Organization. He's the one that the police don't have a picture of DOB of.D'Angelo Barksdale (Bob from TWD and from Waterboy) is the nephew of Avon and was the one who got out of the murder chargeStringer Bell is the right hand man to Avon

Avon is the man, the top dog, he has separated himself form the day to day in order to insulate himself from the crime but he calls all the shots. His second in command is a money guy, Stringer Bell. Stringer strives to be better than the street, wanting to be more of a business man than thug, as he feels he out grew the corner. D'Angelo is now just an officer working the pit, as he was demoted due to his bad decision to kill someone.

purple_hayes wrote:Source of the post His second in command is a money guy, Stringer Bell. Stringer strives to be better than the street, wanting to be more of a business man than thug, as he feels he out grew the corner

That makes sense why I thought he was a lawyer in the courtroom.

purple_hayes wrote:Source of the post Would you have noticed him if I hadn't pointed him out when I first started watching this?

I think so. I recognized his voice and would have pieced it together. He's so young!

Tyler wrote:Source of the post From IMDB:Baltimore Det. Jimmy McNulty finds himself in hot water with his superior Major William Rawls after a drug dealer, D'Angelo Barksdale who is charged with three murders, is acquitted

Purple_Hayes, I know you had questions about this and I agree with you. I think the IMDB synopsis is wrong. Barksdale Organization did 10 murders, but only 3 of them went to court. From what I picked up only one of them was done by D'Angelo.

Tyler wrote:Source of the post From IMDB:Baltimore Det. Jimmy McNulty finds himself in hot water with his superior Major William Rawls after a drug dealer, D'Angelo Barksdale who is charged with three murders, is acquitted

Purple_Hayes, I know you had questions about this and I agree with you. I think the IMDB synopsis is wrong. Barksdale Organization did 10 murders, but only 3 of them went to court. From what I picked up only one of them was done by D'Angelo.

I thought so... only person he killed was a guy walking up on him while intimidating someone in the towers.

purple_hayes wrote:Source of the post His second in command is a money guy, Stringer Bell. Stringer strives to be better than the street, wanting to be more of a business man than thug, as he feels he out grew the corner

That makes sense why I thought he was a lawyer in the courtroom.

Yeah, this bleeds into more storyline down the road in other seasons... as Stringer wants to shift from criminal to business man.

I don't know if you read the IMDb trivia or not. Most of the events and characters are based on true events/people in Baltimore. Later, some of the people the characters are based on become people on the show.

What did you think of the Homicide commander's (Major Rawls) response to McNulty talking to the judge?

the problem I saw with both Burrell and Rawls was that they were more interested in politics than solving crime. They wanted to keep their image spotless instead of getting into a messy drawn out investigation on a wire, which is one of many reasons why the system is failing in Baltimore.

Artukka wrote:Source of the post What did you think of the Homicide commander's (Major Rawls) response to McNulty talking to the judge?

purple_hayes wrote:Source of the post the problem I saw with both Burrell and Rawls was that they were more interested in politics than solving crime. They wanted to keep their image spotless instead of getting into a messy drawn out investigation on a wire, which is one of many reasons why the system is failing in Baltimore.

Agreed. I think Rawls is too far removed from the daily grind and that is why he's mad with McNulty talking to the judge. McNulty is preaching things that his superiors don't even bother knowing about.

Tyler wrote:Agreed. I think Rawls is too far removed from the daily grind and that is why he's mad with McNulty talking to the judge. McNulty is preaching things that his superiors don't even bother knowing about.

When I watched it, it seemed that it was more of a rank and file issue. McNulty went around the chain of command to get what Rawls thought was a made up investigation going. In a military type environment, I know chain of command is huge. So, I see the issue. Like you said, with the top brass so far removed from the streets and their aspirations for wanting to go higher in the chain, they are blinded to what is truly happening in their city. (spoiler) I wish I could tell you that this changes, but I can't.

And it's not just that McNulty defied the chain of command, he was fucking with the program by getting himself detailed and Santangelo detailed so there were two fewer detectives available to work the Homicide rotation. The rotation may not be a perfect system*, but it's a system and even good systems can start to break down when there's a rogue element hell bent on rocking the boat. Notice that nobody (not even the cops who so far have been portrayed as being more competent/sympathetic) seems particularly happy about what McNulty did. Nobody's reaction is "well it's about damned time!" Instead they range from annoyed to astonished to mildly amused.

*One reinforcement of this concept of an imperfect system / rotation is the way Kima (the black female Narcotics detective) gives credit for the arrest they made early in the episode to Herc (the white Narcotics guy) because it was "his turn," in spite of the fact that it looks like she did most of the work in making the arrest happen -- it was her informant that made the case, she was the one calling the shots on the ground, and even did most of the paperwork.

But they have (what I assume is) an informal rotation in place and she seems to have no qualms about adhering to it even though it means she has to carry a couple of goofballs without getting credit for it (on paper, at least). On reflection I guess this is one workaround to the issue of overachievers in bureaucratic settings that lets them perform at a relatively high level without pissing everyone else off because it's elevating standards or making them look bad.

McNulty, though, doesn't seem to adhere to any real system, informal or otherwise.